Friday, December 21, 2018

Kurt Angle Teasing Retirement?, Drake Maverick To Announce Title Match, The New Day Special Viewership

- The New Day's WWE 2018 Pancake Powered New Year Super Spectacular drew 584,000 viewers on the USA Network on Wednesday night. The special aired at 10pm ET and ranked #33 on the Cable Top 150.
The one-hour special featured WWE's year-in-review "through the unique lens" of The New Day's Big E, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston.

- As seen below, Kurt Angle took to Instagram where he posted a photo while thanking the WWE fans and teased retirement from the business. Kurt wrote:

"20 years ago, I stepped foot into a WWE ring", Angle wrote. "I told myself back then I would only go 5 years. But because of the #WWEUniverse, I continued to keep wrestling, although I left WWE for 11 of the 20 years. It feels great being able to end my career where I started."

- WWE 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick is set to announce a new challenger for WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy on next Wednesday's episode. As noted, that episode will have a "Best Of" theme to it.

Below is video from a backstage segment between Maverick and Murphy on this week's show. Murphy talked about his recent wins over Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander, then said he is the best cruiserweight in the world and everyone needs to know it, which is how Drake will help him.

"My next title defense, I want a challenge. I need a challenge. That way, when I win, no one can deny that I am the greatest Cruiserweight Champion in history," Murphy said.

Maverick said he liked that idea and he will put together something for an announcement next week. There's no word yet on who will challenge Murphy, perhaps for a title shot at the 2019 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, but we will keep you updated.